One of the most interesting but terrifying religious practices of Aztec culture was the Aztec death whistle. The skull-shaped ceramic instrument not only looks creepy-it also produces the most ...

A massive disk of intricately carved stone looms over ... The stone has long been an emblem of Mexican identity. Commissioned by the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II (r. 1502–1520), the nearly 12 ...

But in the forests of central Mexico, a single note from an Aztec whistle didn’t always indicate celebration — it meant death. “Death whistles,” or Aztec skull whistles, were short ...